Fluid seals assemblies of various types are used in numerous applications including and not limited to sealing vehicular engine crankshafts, transmission shafts, bearing lubrication systems, compressor shaft support assemblies, and the like. The fluid seal assembly is designed to retain and seal oil or grease in a predetermined location for lubricating the shaft and to prevent ingress of environmental contaminants.
Typical fluid seal assembly includes a casing unit, a flexible sealing member having a sealing lip adapted to engage against a sealing surface of a relatively rotatable member, such as the shaft. The flexible sealing member includes a body portion extending to an annular flex portion of reduced cross-sectional thickness bonded to the metal case member and located intermediate the seal lip and metal case. The purpose of this flex section is to allow the seal lip to stay in continuous, intimate contact with the shaft it is to seal despite any lack of concentricity between the relatively rotating members, e.g. the rotating shaft and the stationery engine block into which the annular metal case member is installed.
It is important to constantly retain and seal oil or grease in a predetermined location for lubrication of the shaft and to prevent ingress of environmental contaminants. There are numerous prior art seal assembly designs, which are effective to return oil or other lubricant to the sealed cavity upon rotation of the shaft. In either case, relative motion between the shaft and the seal assembly serves to “pump” the oil, grease, or other sealed fluid back into the sealed region defined between the shaft and the seal assembly.
The art is replete with various prior art references related to numerous seal designed adaptable to retain and seal oil or grease in a predetermined location for lubrication the shaft. These prior art references include and are not limited to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,501,431 to Peisker et al., 4,667,968 to Nash et al., 4,969,653 to Breen, 6,213,476 to Chandler et al., 6,620,361 to Longtin et al., and 6,736,404 to Shuster.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,431 to Peisker et al., teaches a seal assembly including a casing unit, a resinous sealing ring unit, which is secured to the portion of the casing unit by an annular elastomeric bonding and a locating collar. A seal ring includes an active surface and a reverse surface. A single spiral groove or multiple grooves are formed along the active surface of the inner diameter portion of the ring. These grooves are hydrodynamic pumping elements whose general nature of operation is known to those skilled in the oil seal art.
The seal assembly taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,431 to Peisker et al. has several problems. The hydrodynamic features, such as spirals, are formed into the wafer portion of the seal, which contacts with the countersurface, i.e. the rotatable shaft. The location of the spirals or grooves results in clogging of these spirals or grooves with carbonized oil thereby reducing the lifespan of the seal assembly. Another problem is static leakage of oil through these spirals or grooves.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,653 to Breen teaches a seal unit including a casing unit and an annular seal body portion extending to a flexible neck portion nearest the anchored portion of the seal body. The remainder of the seal body includes a primary seal lip and a secondary seal lip. The seal body includes a series of hydrodynamic groove configurations in the form of a single spiral groove hydrodynamically formed in the seal body. These grooves function as hydrodynamic pumping elements.
Similar to the seal assembly taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,431 to Peisker et al., the seal assembly taught by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,653 to Breen presents the same problems. The hydrodynamic features, such as grooves, are formed into portion of the seal which contacts with the countersurface, i.e. the rotatable shaft, thereby resulting in clogging of these grooves with oil or other lubricant, which reduces of the lifespan of the seal assembly and results in static leakage of oil through these grooves.
Hence, there is a need for an improved fluid seals and methods to eliminate problems associated with prior art designs such as static leakage of oil, clogging up the seals with carbonized oil that negatively impact lifecycle of the fluid seals. The inventive concept as set forth further below improves the aforementioned prior art systems and methods.